Whigs, Nullification, and Indian Removal

The Whig Party

Whigs believed government should foster economic growth and social harmony.
They thought the government could promote balanced economic development for all classes and regions.
Whigs saw a hierarchical society with class distinctions but believed in social mobility.
They advocated for a strong, regulated economy to facilitate upward mobility.
Whigs believed the government should intervene in private life to promote moral character.
They thought the government could shape character traits supporting self-discipline and personal responsibility.
Evangelical Protestants supported Whigs, advocating for public education, temperance laws, and moral legislation to foster civic virtue.
Local governments enacted laws regulating personal behavior, such as banning prostitution, alcohol consumption, and profanity, and enforcing Sabbath observance.
Pennsylvania was known for strict laws regulating public morals and its historic commitment to religious liberty.
Democrats emphasized personal freedom from government interference, while Whigs believed in intervention for a moral and prosperous society.
Both parties considered liberty central but differed on how to secure it.

Nullification Crisis

The Tariff of 1828, which increased taxes on imported goods, was dubbed the "tariff of abominations."
South Carolina leaders protested, believing the tariff unfairly burdened the South to benefit the North and questioned the viability of competing with the North's industrial economy.
The state legislature threatened to "nullify" the tariff, declaring it unenforceable in South Carolina.
In 1830, 55% of South Carolina's population were enslaved people, controlled by powerful plantation owners.
These planters used the state constitution to give plantation counties disproportionate representation and imposed high property requirements for public office.
They were concerned about the Missouri Compromise and the federal government's growing authority under Chief Justice John Marshall, fearing potential action against slavery.
John C. Calhoun became the main supporter of nullification, shifting from nationalism to defending southern interests as the South's population declined relative to the rest of the country.
As vice president in 1828, Calhoun secretly wrote the "Exposition and Protest," arguing for nullification based on the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 1798.
Calhoun argued that the national government was formed by a deal between independent states, each retaining the right to reject federal laws within its borders.
Daniel Webster argued that the Constitution was created by the people, not the states, making the federal government the ultimate authority.
He declared nullification illegal, unconstitutional, and treasonous, with his words "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable," becoming celebrated nationwide.
At a White House dinner, Jackson toasted, "Our Federal Union-it must be preserved," while Calhoun responded, "The Union-next to our liberty most dear."
By 1831, Calhoun openly advocated for states' rights.
Many southern states condemned South Carolina's actions during the nullification crisis.
The compact theory of the Constitution provided the South with a political philosophy for later sectional conflicts.
Calhoun argued that nullification would stabilize a large and diverse nation, proposing a "concurrent majority" where major groups, including slaveholders, could veto harmful laws.
President Andrew Jackson viewed nullification as disunion and rejected Calhoun's reasoning.
In 1832, Congress passed a new tariff, which South Carolina declared void within the state starting the following February.
Jackson urged Congress to pass the Force Bill, allowing him to use the military to enforce federal tariff laws.
Henry Clay and Calhoun collaborated to pass a new tariff in 1833 that further lowered duties, leading South Carolina to withdraw its nullification but symbolically "nullify" the Force Act in protest.
Calhoun left the Democratic Party and joined the Whigs, forming a trio with Clay and Webster, united mainly by their opposition to Jackson.
Andrew Jackson, despite believing in states' rights and limited government, strengthened the idea of Union by using military force to uphold federal authority.

Indian Removal

Andrew Jackson's exclusion of Native Americans from democratic nationalism set the stage for conflict between white settlers and Native Americans east of the Mississippi River.
The last major Native resistance in the Old Northwest occurred in 1832 when federal troops defeated Sauk leader Black Hawk, who tried to reclaim ancestral land in Illinois. Abraham Lincoln was among the militia.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri stated that "extending the area of slavery" required "converting Native soil into slave soil."
During the 1820s, Missouri forced its Native American population to leave the state, with similar policies spreading to older slave states.
In 1830, the Indian Removal Act allocated funds to relocate the Five Civilized Tribes: Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole, numbering about 60,000 people in the Southeast.
The law rejected Thomas Jefferson's idea of "civilized Indians" assimilating into American society.
The Cherokee had created schools, laws, a constitution modeled on the U.S. Constitution, and successful farms, but Jackson still referred to them as "savages."
The Cherokee petitioned Congress and turned to the courts to defend their treaty rights.
In Johnson v. M'Intosh (1823), the Supreme Court ruled that Native Americans only had a "right of occupancy" and did not truly own their land.
Chief Justice John Marshall argued that Native Americans lived as nomads and hunters, weakening their ability to defend their land rights.
In Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), Marshall referred to Native Americans as "wards" of the federal government, deserving protection but not considered citizens.
In Worcester v. Georgia (1832), the Court ruled that Native tribes were distinct nations with political independence, and only the federal government could deal with them. President Andrew Jackson ignored the ruling.
Federal troops forced 18,000 Cherokee into stockades and marched them west during the winter of 1838-1839. At least one-quarter died along the way. This journey, known as the Trail of Tears, is translated from the Cherokee language, meaning "the trail on which we cried."
During the 1830s, most southern tribes reluctantly left their lands, but the Seminoles in Florida resisted, led by Osceola.
Florida had been a haven for enslaved people fleeing from South Carolina and Georgia. The Seminoles fought alongside escaped slaves in the Second Seminole War (1835-1842).
William Apess, a Native American preacher and writer, published "A Son of the Forest" in 1831, calling for justice and harmony between Native Americans and whites.
By 1840, most Native Americans east of the Mississippi had been forced out, and their freedom in the trans-Mississippi West was threatened by expanding white settlement.